Therapy and 2 films

[davetheanalyzer]

I’ve started therapy. I’ve been going for over a month now, talking about concerns and basic 101 matters on how to change. Hopefully this guidance would push me to be less reclusive and be braver. I have read through the documents the therapist provided twice last weekend, though I haven’t memorized them. I confronted someone in my house about using the r-slur several days prior and though I didn’t follow the instructions on the confronting paper exactly, the person did apologize. Granted, they didn’t seem the type to make a fight about it but that was heartening. I also poked a user if they were reposting fanart with permission or not but since I got no response, decided not to make a fight over it. The challenge is when to confront someone and when to walk away, as you often can’t change people’s minds. My therapist and I are currently going over my routines and looking to find times that can be opened up to make space for more socializing. Seeing any results will probably take months, even years, so I don’t expect immediate changes within me (Though I hope they will come to be positive)

In other news, yeah, it’s looking like I won’t be posting much of We Will Hold On Forever this semester, if not for the year. I keep skipping writing days for my master project and though I don’t technically have to make up for them, I feel the impulse to. So the fanfic will be put off for the most part. I’m vaguely thinking of doubling one day of master project writing so I would have a day to spare for the fanfic but I hesitate since that could be very draining. This is all happening when, for personal reasons, I’m losing some passion for writing Land Before Time fanfic. That sucks, because I like the series and I want to put my story ideas down but some negative associations have been polluting that love. I have decided to distance myself from those associations but I wonder if that is enough. At the very least, I want to finish We Will Hold On Forever if I’m really going to move on from the fandom.

I saw two movies this month, the first being Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). I heard of anti-sjws snarling at the film and Birds of Prey fans being annoyed this wasn’t solely about the Birds of Prey. Having no horse in that latter race, I saw the film and enjoyed it for the most part. Hearing comparisons to Deadpool, I was wary, since though I haven’t seen that film, there are certain stories where the comedy is so much it undermines the dramatic or heartwarming parts for me. To my relief, though there are some comedic deaths, which I’m usually mixed on, it doesn’t intrude much on the dramatic and heartwarming moments. You don’t need to watch the Suicide Squad movie to follow what is going on here, since the great introductory animated sequence cleanly introduces Harley Quinn well enough.

Margot Robbie really owns the character in the comedic and heartfelt pathos of grieving after a breakup. Even if she’s away from the Joker, that doesn’t mean she turned over a new leaf. She is friendly to those who aren’t a threat or nice to her but she is still willing to hurt or kill if crossed. I do like in between her cheery and flighty demeanor, she still has her psychologist smarts and can really hold her own in a fight even when against many enemies. Even after all the horrible things she did, she still has the capacity to care for others and shows it here.

With her mother’s heroic death having left her shuffled between foster homes, Dinah Lance doesn’t want anything to do with heroics. Yet I like she isn’t without good intentions. She saved a drunk Harley from being kidnapped by creeps. Sharing a challenging foster life, she offers verbal and monetary support to Cassandra and when Cass is in danger, decides to be an informant for Renee Montoya to protect the kid. Speaking of Renee, as the other characters joke, she is like someone from a cheesy cop movie, hard-nosed and willing to buck the system. Since her former partner stole credit for a successful case and got promoted over her, her remaining as a detective for so long has made her good at finding and putting clues together and be determined to fight to get to a bottom of a case. It has certainly made her less patient with social and even procedural niceties (I don’t know if it was her intention to wear the “I shaved my balls for this?” t-shirt, though that shirt…I don’t know if that has some transphobic implications or not).

Helena is kind of a dorky punk assassin who trained in how to kill to the extent her social skills have been somewhat neglected. I was amused she practiced her introductions in the mirror. With her surviving the assassination of her family and especially her brother, it makes sense she would sympathize with Cass, not wanting someone so young to see the violence she saw as a girl. And then there’s Cassandra herself. Even from second hand discussion, I could tell she was an in-name-only version of her comic counterpart. Why the writers didn’t go through the many DC characters to find someone else close to fitting her role in the movie, I don’t know but I did like her character. She seems to suffer from parental neglect or abuse, as heard when the foster father is heard screaming he didn’t want her. I don’t how much of that plays a part in her compulsive pickpocketing but with that experience, it makes sense it takes a bit for her to trust and warm up to others.

I did like Cass’s bond with Harley. It makes sense, since after the Joker breakup, Harley would be more open to social connections and Cass would be open to genuine affection, especially from a quirky and cool person like Harley. They can bring the best out of each other. This is in contrast to Roman Sionis aka Black Mask and Victor Zsasz. Sionis allows and pushes Zsasz to hurt and kill others to both their mutual delight and Zsasz indulges Sionis’ entitled, sadistic tendencies, as seen when Zsasz lies that a woman was laughing at him, leading Sionis to force her to strip, a tense scene – I wondered if the woman would make it out alive. Zsasz seems to be a foil for Harley in how devoted he is to Sionis. He is jealous of anyone who takes Sionis’ attention and doesn’t seem to have her redeeming qualities, like caring about anyone outside of Sionis.

I did like the finale fight. The women all barely knew each other and yet were forced to work together to survive Black Mask’s goons. I liked Harley’s quirky brief talk to Helena revenge can feel empty – maybe it gave Helena something to think about. I also like that they each checked on Cass, each having a personal stake in her safety. Harley and Helena’s chase of Black Mask on the roads, with Harley really showing with her distinct fighting style on rollerblades, was great, as was her talking back to Black Mask that she doesn’t need the Joker and she herself is someone not to be messed with. I can see the disappointment Black Mask couldn’t appear in other features, since he was a well-acted and written villain, but after all his cruelty his fate was well deserved. It seems Harley and Cass will stay together. I hope they live a happier life together. I’m aware that Harley will appear in the new Suicide Squad film, so hopefully not anything too bad will happen to Cass or separate them. I know this film isn’t doing as well as it could but I hope the Birds of Prey characters appear in other films, as the actresses did well and it would be interesting to see their further story.

The other film I saw was The Photograph. I saw trailers in one theater that made me interested enough to list them in my phone and this film was among them. I completely forgot about the list until I ran across it later. I wondered if I should see it so soon after Birds of Prey but I decided to go, worried it would leave theaters soon (and two days alter, it did). Despite me not getting as much sleep that day, I did enjoy the movie. The one thing that can sometimes throw me are the characters often argue in a playful way and seem to almost veer to an actual argument but then joke back to friendlier territory. But I did enjoy the slow, relaxed pace of the love story between the couples in the eighties and the present day, the pace augmented nicely by the music.

Michael is a mellow reporter, definitely not above joking around, but his voice is usually more on the soft spoken end. His brother Kyle is an opposite in some ways, joking and poking at Michael, yet Michael often visits Kyle and his family and Kyle gives his support when he could. Michael makes sure to give Andy the work experience so he could write articles, affably ribbing Andy about his date but pressing his boss to promote Andy to an employee. Mae is an art curator struggling with the death of her distant mother Christina and reads the letters Christina left behind to learn about her. She confides with her mother’s significant other Louis about her and in turn teases her friend Rachel about being with Andy and confiding in her about her love life. Mae and Michael seem to have an instant connection and they have a comfortable chemistry, teasing each other and when a conflict does come up, trying to resolve it through talking. This relationship is paralleled with Christina and Isaac in the 1980s, with Christina trying to pursue her passion of photography and struggling with her mother’s disapproval. Isaac is an ordinary, kind fisherman, who wants to marry Christina but though a bit frustrated, respects her rejection of his proposals and seems content with an ordinary life.

This kind of film, of course, is about how people deal with their relationships, romantic mostly but familial as well. Christina has a stern relationship with her mother, saying Christina’s photography passion wouldn’t support her and to move out in addition to disapproving of Isaac. But then we learn the mother was dying and didn’t want her daughter present for that. It seems those statements might have been the mother’s harsh way to try to help Christina. I don’t know if the mother was always that stern or if the sickness put that in but the issue of connection seems to become a generational issue. When Christina can’t be content with her life and Isaac won’t move, she goes off on her own to New York. Heartbroken, Isaac quickly marries off to another person he knew Heather and Christina can’t confront him right away and when they talk, she turns down the opportunity to be closer to him. Isaac holds himself responsible for not pursuing her, like when she suspects Mae is his kid but is too afraid to know. These experiences seem to have effected Christina such that she shows love to Mae by providing a home with her work and wasn’t as close to her daughter as she wanted. Mae in turn seems to fear close romantic commitment and when Michael reveals he got the job in London, she said they might as well break it off, even when keeping in contact was what she wanted, her fear of needing someone pressing her into saying it. Fortunately, it was with talking with Rachel that she got her thoughts into order and contacted Michael to go to a concert together for his favorite music artist Kendrick Lamar, where they are willing to make the long distance relationship work (Though I’m unsure of the surprise kiss, with the consent issue critiques I read of them in media). I do hope it works out for them. As an easygoing, pleasant film, I do recommend it.

That’s all for now. I’ve spent most of the Saturday rewriting this post and I have slept around the clock again to get to a good sleep schedule. I hope it works this time. Until the end of March, see you!